I’ve never had a game device before, OK, an Atari 2600, but that hardly counts.
I’m 63 and I’m looking for a game or two for some simple entertainment. Any suggestions are appreciated. And I’m not as smart about games as my friends kids, so keep that in mind. 
If you like puzzles then there are a few games I have played and enjoyed. Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a very popular game that although it is set to a story, the gameplay is just solving various types of puzzles. Most of the puzzles usually have some “trick” that makes them simpler than they originally appear. I have also enjoyed Picross. You can see what type of puzzles these are at conceptispuzzles.com, but I forget what they are called there and can’t check at work. They are called Paint by Numbers in Games Magazine.
The PuzzleQuest games I found fun. You are a character like in an RPG, but your battles take place on a Bejeweled board. You can gather skulls or points to do damage to your opponent, or gather colored jewels to build up mana to cast spells.
I haven’t played Mario Kart on the DS very much, but I love the online version on my Wii. The DS version does have WiFi play I believe.
And while this genre is not as popular overall, I have enjoyed the “interactive novel” type games of Hotel Dusk, Trace Memory, and Time Hollow.
Clubhouse Games would probably provide you with a lot of enjoyment. It has a bunch of games you’re probably already familiar with and might help ease you into gaming a bit. Since it’s packed with so many different games some of them aren’t as polished as they could be, and a few are downright bad, but you’re sure to find some you like. At only 20 bucks you really can’t go wrong with this one.
I came into this thread to recommend Professor Layton and the Curious Village as well. It’s a wonderful game and the puzzles are quite good, as is the little story. The graphics are nice, the interaction with the stylus is cool, and everything about it is just great.
It’s less than $30 now, so it’s a pretty good deal as well.
But it and love it. 
I have to second Puzzle Quest. Easily the best bang for the beck of any games I’ve bought so far, it’s pretty addictive, and while it can get confusing basic gameplay is pretty simple. The writing is also pretty decent. Rune Factory also kept me busy for a good while.
I started it’ps own thread, but Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure is amazing
Despite the similarities in the name and setting, it is nothing like Professor Layton. It’s more like Mario/Castlevania (the platforming is like Mario, but you also attack with a cane/sword and a gun,) but there is some bejewel led/tetris-attack style puzzle elements you have to do.
You might enjoy Animal Crossing: Wild World. It’s a simple little game; you have a character with a little house and you save money and buy thing for your house, new outfits, etc. It’s a little bit like The Sims, but not too much (you don’t have to use the bathroom or eat, for example). It’s pretty cute, and even though the gameplay is very very easy, it can be addictive.
Thanks for the responses. I’ll be stopping by Wally World or Target this afternoon. So far I like Club House games, Puzzle Quest, and the Henry Hatsworth Puzzling Adventure.
Probably won’t get to watch much TV tonight.
For something nice and classic, check to see if you can find Tetris DS. It’s very good.
Games I thought lived up to their hype:
-Advance Wars Dual Strike (excellent)
-Touchmaster (pick up fun)
-Clubhouse Games (pick up fun)
-Zelda Hourglass (excellent)
-Professor Layton (excellent)
Hyped games I didn’t like:
-Brain Age (boring real quick)
-Puzzle Quest
-Dragon Quest Rocket Slime
-Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
-Meteos
-Trauma Center
Games that don’t play well on the small screen:
-Super Mario 64 DS
-Magnetica
Games I played that were average:
-Super Mario Bros.
-Mario Kart DS
-Trace Memory
Games that were awful:
-Touchmaster 2
-Napoleon Dynamite the Game
Depends on the genre you’re looking at. (Just forgive my formatting!) :o
Puzzle:
Planet Puzzle League - This is your classic Tetris Attack or Panel de Pon–a match-three game exponentially deeper than Bejeweled–but with touch controls, time trials, and online play.
Tetris DS - Same as above, but with Tetris. Features awesome Nintendo retro themes during gameplay, as well as some new modes and one that takes advantage of the touch screen. This one’s rather rare, tho.
Meteos - An early touch-based puzzler where the blocks you match serve as rockets to the top of the screen, where they disappear. The physics for each level are different, so you may have to make smaller matches in order for them to beat the level’s gravity.
**Peggle Dual Shot **- It’s fucking PEGGLE! And Peggle Nights, so it’s two games in one.
**Gunpey DS **- Found this in a bargain bin and ended up loving it. It’s a puzzle game where you shift around blocks with angled lines on them, and when the lines match up in some way that makes an unbroken connection from the left to the right of the screen, you get a bonus and those blocks disappear. It also moves pretty well to the music.
Adventure/Platformers:
**Henry Hatsworth **- This latest from EA needs to be played; it’s a shame most people won’t give it a chance because it doesn’t already have a big-brand name attached to it.
New Super Mario Bros - It’s sold millions for a reason. This game brings back all the classic moves, enemies, tropes, and level types from classic 2D Mario games into a new 8 World adventure. They need to hurry up and make a sequel to it.
**Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow **- A comparatively easy Castlevania (of the SoTN type, focusing on exploration) with a twist: every time you kill an enemy, you have a chance of getting its “soul,” which you can equip and use as a unique power. These can range from simply throwing a projectile, summoning a huge sword to help you, to giving you the ability to fly. Some souls are super-rare, so it’s almost got that Pokemon-like collecting madness to it.
**Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass **- An entirely touch-based Zelda game, which controls surprisingly well for what it is. You slash near Link to attack, certain puzzles become much easier with the game’s built-in map drawing system, and things like bombs and boomerangs are suddenly much more accurate. As always, much to explore and discover.
Role-playing Games:
The World Ends With You - Even with the crazy anime look to it, this is one of the more maturely written RPGs on the system. It’s set in a heavily stylized version of the Shibuya district of Tokyo, which fits with the electro-sounding J-rock soundtrack. The combat is a real test, as it has you controlling one character on the top screen with the buttons and using gesture-based attacks on the bottom screen. You can play an easy mode, but the game features different unlocks and skills on higher settings and lets you adjust the difficulty pretty much at will. A lot of experimental stuff in this game, but it ends up working out to make something unique in both the genre and the handheld market.
Chrono Trigger - Hard to say more than has already been said about this one. One of the first active-battle RPGs, where enemies will attack at regular intervals even while you’re thinking about what attack to select. Too many great characters, moments, and sidequests to mention. Only downside is they haven’t changed much of it.
Final Fantasy IV - This one they changed, from the translation to the graphics to the minute rewards for exploring every inch of a dungeon. It was born long ago as one of the consummate Final Fantasy games and one of the very last strictly turn-based ones. Lots of grinding is necessary at some points. It’s a 2D game fully realized in 3D, so even without the great story, it’s a marvel just for that.
Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja / Shiren the Wanderer / FF: Chocobo’s Dungeon - These are worth a try if you’ve ever been sucked into a roguelike such as Nethack or ADOM. They use the same elements such as randomly generated dungeons, tile-based movement with turn-based attacks, and rather sharp penalties for death. Generally more lenient than PC roguelikes, but still a great way to sink lots of time, if you have the patience.
Unclassifiable:
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Unrealistic courtroom drama. Lots of finger-pointing and zealous arguments. You play a defense attorney who, in the process of learning about his client’s case, collects evidence and pieces it together to find the real killer. There are always a few twists for each case, so it often comes down to the last day in court and a key witness revealing how the story plays out. The writing and presentation are great, tho the linear one-way logic can be frustrating, especially when there’s a lot of evidence pointing toward a particular conclusion, but you’re only allowed to present one piece at a time.
Hotel Dusk - Blend touch-based puzzles with a film-noir feel about a mysterious hotel room.
**Brain Age **- Another easy million-seller. It ostensibly uses a polygonal Japanese doctor’s tendency to lecture you about breakfast to make your brain feel younger, but it turns out to be more about unlocking new brain exercises and rewarding you for sticking with it and playing every day. Also includes a pretty good sudoku.
The DS has some great games out, if you know what to look for, and is definitely one of the easiest systems to get into. Hope these help!
Wow, just wow! I’ve been looking for a thread like this for awhile now. Thanks for the great information!
I picked up the Clubhouse Games last night and burned the pork steaks on the grill while Bowling. :smack: Haven’t tried many of the others yet, OK, darts, but it looks to be fun. Might try one of the other recommendations this week end.
Personally, my favorite so far is Picross, a logic puzzle game with gradually increasing difficulty.
You might enjoy this review from Wired: Review: Peggle Dual Shot Proves Nearly Perfect on DS.
High praise! And guess what just arrived on my doorstep literally a minute ago? It’s birthday season at my house, so DS games for my daughter and I (I give myself the best presents!). Professor Layton and the Curious Village, The World Ends With You, and* Peggle Dual Shot*, and more still coming.
Robin Goodfellow, my daughter just returned from 5 months studying in Tokyo, so I know she’ll appreciate *Gunpey *and The World Ends With You.
The World Ends With You is far and away my favorite DS game, it’s just incredible. I don’t like j-pop or anime at all but the way this game presents everything made it work. The main character at the start is kind of an emo JRPG cliche but if you stick with it he gets a lot better. I hope you guys have fun with it.
I second both of these opinions about Touchmaster. I liked the original one so much I got the second one and was very disappointed in it. I still play the original all the time.
Warning: this is like the portable gaming version of World of Warcraft. You will make your wife an Animal Crossing widow.
But it is a mighty enjoyable way to alienate everyone you know and waste your life away…
No, really??? I’m trying to kick the WoW habit, maybe…nah, Animal Crossing looks ridiculously boring. What would make it addicting to some woman’s husband? I don’t get it.
One factor is that the game is pseudo-real-time. That means a lot of the activities change throughout the year, so it keeps things fresh, and us addictive and obsessive-compulsive types want to get/see everything. There’s also the constant acquisition of new items, which require you to get a bigger house, which requires you to make money, which requires you to create a fruit farm empire and become a master fisherman and archaeologist.
I didn’t take well to WoW because of the endless level grinding, and Animal Crossing has the same addictive qualities without to listen to countless hours of ‘YOU NO TAKE CANDLE!!!’